PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has announced that the country has been placed under a state of emergency (SOE) effective Tuesday, March 3. The decision follows reports of credible evidence connecting criminal gangs and former detainees to a recent surge in crime.

In a statement, Persad-Bissessar said that following a meeting of the country’s National Security Council (NSC) on Monday, she had asked President Christine Kangaloo to declare the SOE.

The prime minister said the measure is consistent with the Government’s zero-tolerance approach to crime and criminal gangs, “as demonstrated by numerous successful, strategic operations conducted by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and the armed forces over the last 10 months, legislation introduced in Parliament to empower and protect law-abiding citizens, and ongoing reforms to the criminal justice system”.

Persad-Bissessar said that following the end of the previous state of emergency on January 31st, 2026, “there has been an increase in violent criminal activity across the country, most of which has been carried out by members of organised criminal gangs”.

The NSC further noted that several of these acts of criminality have resulted in multiple deaths due to mass shootings and that the continuance of reprisal shootings amongst criminal gangs, if left unchecked, would endanger public safety.

The prime minister said the NSC meeting had received security briefings from the Commissioner of Police, Allister Guevarro, the Chief of Defence Staff, Don Polo, and the Head of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), Alicia Henry.

“The NSC was informed that intelligence recently gathered indicates credible threats to attack police officers, prison officers and other members of the security and legal services,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar added, “I had previously warned the criminal gangs and detainees released from prison that decent law-abiding citizens are fed up with their criminality, and if they cannot behave themselves, I would have no hesitation in having another SOE declared.”

“I also indicated that violent gang members would be returned straight to prison, and this time, their friends and family who aid their criminality would accompany them. I reiterate my words that if criminals want to terrorise law-abiding citizens and their families, I will do everything legally possible to terrorise criminals and those who aid and abet them,” she warned.

Persad-Bissessar said that her Government will continue to utilise all available resources to ensure that the gains achieved in significantly reducing the murder rates and the incidents of violent crime against citizens are not reversed and overturned by those who are determined to inflict death, hardship and torment on people.

In December 2024, the then Keith Rowley government announced an SOE which remained in effect until January 31 this year with the Persad-Bissessar administration extending the measure when it came into office in April last year.

Earlier this year, the Government failed in its bid to introduce the Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) Bill, 2026, often referred to as ZOSO, after it failed to pass in the Senate in late January when the Government failed to secure the necessary support from the independent bench.

The Government had proposed the anti-crime measure in Trinidad and Tobago designed to allow law enforcement, including the defence force, to operate in designated “hotspot” areas with enhanced powers, such as search and seizure without warrants, and the implementation of curfews.